Steered by Spectacle: Jacques Ellul and the Illusion of Online Engagement

A common admonishment from those who lament our digital age’s dilemmas is to “log off.” Those convinced of the merits of social media engagement push back, arguing much good can be accomplished online. I don’t entirely disagree with the latter, but we need to be more critical about how we curate our attention.

It’s too simplistic to say social media isn’t “real life.” The lines between our digital and material worlds increasingly blur, and what happens online has real-life effects. However, the platforms deceive us into thinking we’re accomplishing more than we are. Soon, those active on them become addicted to the daily drama. A new battle is provoked each day, with prominent figures and their allies falling predictably along tribal lines—and we feel pressured (or excited) to add our voices.

Jacques Ellul (1912–94) was a mid-century Protestant theologian and social critic who attended more than perhaps any Christian thinker of his era (other than Marshall McLuhan) to the influence of technology and new media. We need to listen to his wisdom about this phenomenon and what it does to us.

Presence in the Modern World

In his major sociological works and his theological writings on how Christians should engage the world, Ellul warned about getting sucked into the “feed.”

He observed that modern media technology, such as the daily news thrusts on us a barrage of “facts” and dilemmas. We can easily apply his thought to today’s social media. Those who engage are pressured to take a side. We take the plunge because we want to be in the mix, to be “up to date.” This makes us feel important. We must remain logged on and locked in; we can’t miss an important development or emerging discourse; we can’t be left behind, ignorant about the action and absent from the scene. Ellul described this as a “craze for what is current.”

Ellul considered and affirmed Christians’ desires to engage the world, to be agents of kingdom presence. So he titled his first major “theological” work Presence in the Modern World. He shared the sentiment of many activist Christians today that we must resist the quietist impulse that implies Christianity has no bearing on the public order but merely pertains to the private sphere and individual devotion.

Social media platforms deceive us into thinking we’re accomplishing more than we are.

Ellul, however, saw how many had misinterpreted him, which was one of the reasons he wrote his follow-up, False Presence of the Kingdom. (The original French title is Fausse présence au monde moderne, for which a strict translation would more closely mirror the first work—False Presence in the Modern World—thus clearly connecting the two works.) Ellul explained that in some eras, the quietist impulse is strong; but, at the same time, the pendulum can easily swing to the opposite error. He believed that was true in his time with the obsession with politics, and it applies today to certain sectors of evangelical Christianity in North America.

Too many people, according to Ellul, had interpreted his first work on “presence” as tacitly endorsing the broader trend of conflating Christian engagement with “political involvement.” One myth of late-modern democracies is that politics is what really matters. Christians are pressured to “get involved”—which is understood as activity in politics.

Ellul warned that this elevated the status of politics beyond what’s proper. Politics becomes the “ultimate domain,” where “presence” is primarily lived out and through which Christians come to filter all things (he argues this most explicitly in the final chapter of The New Demons on “political religion”). We come to engage our neighbors, even online, primarily with reference to political divisions. And since social media is effectively the primary public forum for the masses today, this is where these battles are commonly waged.

Manufactured Drama

These insights, alongside Ellul’s arguments about propaganda, help us perceive how we’re being herded by algorithms, outrage baiters, and professional provocateurs. Ellul understood propaganda as mass communication used to trigger reactions. Propagandists set up “psychological levers,” ensuring certain symbols and slogans provoke reflex actions. They oversimplify complex problems to appeal to the emotions of a mass of individuals and elicit a predetermined response with as little thought as possible. They generate stereotypes into which everything fits, while inducing a felt need to respond within a rigidly narrowed set of options.

Ellul explained that much of the drama is completely manufactured, with problems being based on false information or given undue weight. These forces press us to put everyone in political categories, instigate a reflex response, and seek to enlist us in the battle du jour.

We’re trained, little by little, to react viscerally—by vibes—to all parties involved. All opinions are reduced to “positive” or “negative” attitudes, making conversation impossible. There’s simply too much at stake in the spectacle. Tribes have been established, enemies have been declared, and people are watching. Those who have a different assessment of the facts and are at odds with your tribe’s approved responses cannot be engaged with charity; in fact, such a figure isn’t a person at all but an avatar of a tribe you hate.

So much is lost in these modes of engagement, when visceral reactionaries (of whatever stripe: progressive, right-wing dissident, centrist) are steered by the spectacle. To fall into such behavior is to lose self-control (see Prov. 25:28; Gal. 5:23; 2 Tim. 1:7; 3:3; 1 Pet. 4:7) and a sober mind (see 1 Tim. 3:2, 11; 2 Tim. 4:5; Titus 2:2; 1 Pet. 4:7; 5:8). And, Ellul argues, it makes us superficial. The pressure to keep up and step in line by committing to a tribe and its established set of acceptable takes means you become a less serious thinker.

Forced to Forget

Constantly attending to the incessant flow of news and debates inhibits long-range thinking. You’re forced to forget, Ellul argued, what was vitally important a minute ago. This circadian whiplash cycle is training your attention to be tossed to and fro by every wave of drama, so it’s almost impossible to assimilate the lessons of the past into an integrated self.

The pressure to keep up and step in line by committing to a tribe and its established set of acceptable takes means you become a less serious thinker.

What mostly happens is that the various participants adopt the momentary script laid out by the tribe. You think you’re getting involved and expressing your political agency, but you’re more herded than you recognize. You struggle to think outside the categories of the battles of the day that have been presented to you and the paths established for you. Ellul argued that Christians who obsess about keeping up with the news and feel pressure to speak regularly get hemmed in by the world’s options.

What’s lost in the process is the distinctive witness of Christian truth. When Christians fall into thought and speech patterns that differ in no meaningful way from their non-Christian contemporaries, the salt loses its savor.

Application to Pastors

If a pastor faithfully attends to his calling to shepherd Christ’s flock under his care and to prepare to preach the Word regularly, how does he have time to speak intelligently on developments in the news and social media? Your MDiv didn’t deliver omnicompetence. And your pastoral duties aren’t primarily to your “followers” online. Many, if not most, battles waged in those spaces distract from your primary vocation. Further, speaking up on issues beyond your training and expertise while falling predictably into tribal talking points dilutes your witness because you become just another cog in the partisan machine.

Matters are worse with those pastors and public theologians playing as provocateurs for attention, notoriety, or money. Scripture has harsh words for believers, especially religious leaders, who engage in foolish controversies and stir up division (e.g., 1 Tim. 3:1–3; 6:3–5; 2 Tim. 2:14–26; Titus 3:1–11; Prov. 6:16–19). Of course, real divisions need to be recognized (e.g., Jer. 6:14; Matt. 10:34–39; 23; Luke 12:49–53). Too many Christians, however, seem to enjoy magnifying disagreements and exacerbating tensions. For this, let the weight of scriptural warnings press on you.

Ellul, without advocating for quietism or reducing our political witness to the denunciation of partisanship, warned that it’s always dangerous to join sides in political battles. He was talking mainly about political parties. To join one is certainly permissible, he said. However, this commitment can make us less careful thinkers, tempting us to become less Christian in our loyalties (with partisan identities taking first place).

Once we’re within the political party or online tribe, our conceptual and rhetorical options narrow and we face constant pressure to display our loyalty. Through various forms of formal and informal propaganda, we’re primed to interpret developments in a certain way and pressured to comment on them in lockstep with the group. Ellul argued that if Christians join such a tribe, they have a duty to manifest the deeper unity they share with Christians who might differ on debatable matters that don’t strike at the fundamentals of faith. So we can pick a side we deem nearer to the truth, but we should avoid knee-jerk demonization of fellow believers to win temporal battles.

You might not need to “log off.” But many of us need to better curate our attention and demote the daily drama on social media. Let’s not be steered by the spectacle of online warfare. If reality is increasingly a game now, let’s make sure we aren’t the ones being played.